Rising Utility costs

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08246/908663-28.stm

HARRISBURG -- Two Penn State researchers are trying to calculate the impact most Pennsylvanians will feel from rising electric costs as rate caps expire in the next two years.

Individual families could feel a substantial blow from the increased electricity bills, expected to be 20 percent to 63 percent, the report said. Undoubtedly, the people who make the least amount of money will suffer the most.

Inflation - Rising Cost of Living

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/15/business/economy/15econ.html?_r=1&fta=...

The cost of living, led by the soaring cost of gasoline and food, is rising at the fastest rate since the recession of the early 1990s, the government said on Thursday, handing a de facto pay cut to the American worker.

The report, from the Labor Department, offered quantitative proof of what Americans have been feeling for months: almost everything costs more, even as they have less money to pay for it.

Prices of a wide range of common products in the Consumer Price Index were 5.6 percent higher last month than they were in July 2007, the sharpest annual increase since January 1991.

Much of the increase has been driven by the immense run-up in gasoline prices. But food, beverage and transportation costs are also significantly higher than they were a year ago.